As a business owner, you know that all of your leads, client information and opportunity details, correspondence and activity must be entered into a reliable database – or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform.

So you have researched and decided on the most appropriate CRM for your business and you have instructed your team to use it….but it doesn’t end there.A CRM must be considered the central information point for every activity with a client or lead that your business is involved with. You need to enforce the use of the CRM – regularly, run reports on the data collected in the CRM – regularly, and train your staff to use the CRM to ensure the data within it is clean – regularly!

So what is clean data?

Put simply, clean data is current, complete and accurate data,. It means that your sales staff are in touch with their accounts, they know who is doing what, and they are recording it within the CRM.

Why should you care if the information in your CRM is up to date?

You should care because staff move on. They move on from your business, they move on from your client’s business. You and your future staff need to rely on the CRM to ensure you have the correct information, regardless of who is dealing with the client from your company.

You should care because unreliable information in your CRM will:

Cause confusion

Lead users to refrain from using the CRM.

Prevent you from forward planning

Prevent you from analyzing

Send a message to your clients that your business doesn’t care what they have to say to you.

Give you worthless reports

What else is considered clean data?

Naming conventions!

Are all of your Opportunities labelled the same way? Can you look at five opportunities and immediately know what you are selling? Or is it a head scratcher?It is paramount to name your opportunities and your business names the same way throughout your CRM so sales reporting is clear, so staff are clear, and so clients are clear.

Required fields!

What fields are necessary for your business and reporting needs? What is going to help your business to grow? What fields are not being used? Are they necessary? A clean up of fields, mandatory and otherwise, will help your users provide the information you want for your reporting needs.Email addresses – accurately recorded – are an absolute must – without this, your email marketing efforts are pointless and a waste of time.The benefits of having clean data are that it gives clarity to your users, allows for accurate reporting and provides the ability to plan for future business growth and achievable targets.

Virtually There is a specialist in CRM implementation, customisation, training, ongoing support – and data integrity. Virtually There offers a stress free solution for you to ensure your data remains clean all year round – allowing you to analyse and plan for business growth. Email crmsupport@virtuallythere.com.au or call Kerryn on 0410 5444 81 to discuss how we can help your CRM stay clean.